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At a White House policy meeting, the homeland security secretary on Wednesday likened the loose network of antifascist activists to MS-13, the Gaza-based organization, Hezbollah and the Islamic State, describing the decentralized street activists “just as dangerous” as designated terrorist organizations.

“They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as the Tren de Aragua, as the Islamic State, as Hezbollah, as the Palestinian faction, each one of these, they are just as dangerous,” the secretary said. “They have an agenda to destroy us, similar to other extremist groups we’ve dealt with for many, many years.”

The discussion included rightwing social media journalists including several prominent commentators and others who report on antifa protests.

Some of the groups Noem cited – Hamas, Hezbollah and Isis – are formally designated terrorist organizations that hold land, operate military wings, maintain command structures and have executed mass casualty attacks such as explosions, abductions and assassinations.

Specialists in radical movements have frequently characterized the anti-fascist movement, in comparison, as having no centralized leadership, official membership or structured hierarchy, and it has generally been described by national authorities as a decentralized movement of activists who engage in protest activity, some of which has included damage to belongings and street violence.

This meeting comes after an executive order issued in September designating anti-fascist activists as a “domestic terrorist organization”.

Days before the announcement, a Proud Boys leader who was convicted and then pardoned for his actions during the Capitol events posted on X: “Who is prepared to pursue anti-fascist activists? Because I know a few guys.”